{I will carry it on and let you forget}

Traditions...do you have them,did your mom and if so do you every {REALLY} stop to think what they mean?
 My Nana was a lady with so many layers but over time she soon forgot, riddled with Alzheimer's disease her memories were lost in her mind but never in ours. I think of her often but am not one to vocalize my feelings I watch in awe at how my mom can carry on daily without her mother, I for one am crippled at the mere thought of losing my mother yet I watch the strength and courage it takes my mom to walk through life with both her parents gone.
My Nana passed away when I was 15 but was truly gone before I ever had the chance to know her at all. Slowly her mind slipped away and being just a child I didn't understand. She lived with us...yes day in and day out my mother cared for her mother not knowing if the next morning she would wake up being a stranger to the very woman who raised her. COURAGE AND STRENGTH yes my mom has it all!
 After my Nana's passing my mom still carried on the legacy that her mother forgot. I was blessed to get to know my Nana through my mother. Smart and artistic tall and lean she would have been in love with all these little ones running about....I wonder if I would have made her proud. I miss her dearly!
It's around this time of year and Christmas  in particular that I think of her most. For those of you who know my mom or have had the chance to come by the "Ashley winter wonderland" in December, you know how crazy my mom gets with the decorations. Every picture candle figurine and book is cleared and in comes something CHRISTmas. I use to think she was just neurotic but now I understand the meaning of this tradition...My grandmother use to do the same thing!!!! These are the things that my Nana left behind the pieces of her that my mom has connected in order for my kids to KNOW who her mother was....amazing how someone can be physically gone but still so much a part of our lives.
My mom hangs this {what use to be Brady bunch green} musical ball from the center of the ceiling fan every year....the same one my Nana use to hang and every time I pull the string to hear the music I feel her, I am pulling the very string she did I am hearing the very song she listened to each Christmas. Traditions...what do they mean? To me it is my mother trying to connect the pieces her mother left! I will do the the same for my children because in each tradition is a piece of history, love and yes my NANA!!!

{Nana, I will try to connect all the pieces you  left I will carry them on and let you forget}